Beverley Payne, 21, who also worked as an aerobics instructor, died from a stab wound to the heart on the day she was due to fly to the Dutch Antilles where Chris Davies, her long-term boyfriend and the father of her two children, was working.

The inquest heard her three-year-old son, Robert, told a caller at the house: "I think mummy is dead. She will not talk to me." The joint inquest into the deaths of Miss Payne and her odd-job man, Nicholas Davies, 33, who was not related to Chris, heard that Robert spent nearly six hours at home with his murdered mother's body before they were discovered.

Nicholas Davies was found dead in Miss Payne's £27,000 silver Mercedes convertible in Swansea docks on July 11. He was discovered with his left hand, palm up, fastened to the car steering wheel by a necktie, a piece of cable and the flex of the mobile telephone charger, which was also wrapped around one of his legs.

Hours later Miss Payne's body was found in the bedroom of the house she rented in Neath, south Wales. Dr David Osborne, the Neath and Port Talbot coroner, said it was not his role to determine the relationship between Miss Payne and her handyman.

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But the inquest heard that neighbours believed Miss Payne and Nicholas Davies were living together as husband and wife. Chris Davies was often absent on business and was in Venezuela on the day his girlfriend died.

In a statement at the time of the deaths, Chris Davies said the handyman, a former friend, had become besotted with Miss Payne and could not accept that she wanted to join him abroad. But he denied that they were having an affair.

Peter Radcliff, a former accountant for the couple, told the inquest he discovered Miss Payne dead after calling round unannounced with an unpaid bill. Her son, Robert, whose sister Rebekah, 11 months, was upstairs in her cot, answered the door.

He said: "I knocked at the door and a little boy answered and he said, 'I think my mummy is dead.'" He added that he went inside and was surprised to see the mess within the house, which was usually immaculate.

"Then, I went upstairs and I saw Beverley lying dead in the bedroom. Robert said 'she won't speak to me'. She was on the floor and I was sure at first glance that she was dead. I saw blood and I immediately thought, 'Oh dear, I need to call the police and get some help.' "

Hugh White, a pathologist, said Miss Payne had multiple cuts on the surface of her hands. "These are characteristic of someone who is trying to defend themself." He added that she had been stabbed twice during the attack, once in the abdomen and a second time, fatally, through two ribs directly into a chamber of the heart.

The coroner said there was "overwhelming evidence" that Miss Payne had been unlawfully killed. Earlier the head of South Wales CID, Det Chief Supt Wynne Phillips, said blood was found on Nicholas Davies's clothes.

"There is not a shred of evidence at all that can connect any other person with the death of Beverley." Another pathologist, Dr Stephen Leadbetter, said Nicholas Davies had drowned, and had also taken a fatal overdose of painkillers.

Chris Davies sat through the evidence at his girlfriend's inquest. In a statement at the time of her death, he said: "Beverley and I had a strong, loving relationship. She was not having an affair with Nick Davies. He was just an employee of the family."